Juanda Headlines WSOPE €50k High-Roller Final Table

With a €50k buy-in and the ability to rebuy at will, the Majestic High-Roller tournament at the World Series of Poker Europe tournament series attracted the most successful poker players and quite a few successful individuals from outside of poker. In all, the tournament saw 60 total entries (49 players and 11 rebuys) swelling the prize-pool to just under €3 million.

Among the players in the field were Daniel Negreanu, Tony G, Phil Ivey, Dan Smith, Erik Seidel, Sam Trickett, Steve O’Dwyer, John Juanda, Scott Seiver (who is fresh off of finishing in the Top 20 in the WSOPE Main event), and Macau high rollers like Richard Yong and Paul Phua.

The tournament has a very top-heavy payout structure with very small pay jumps between 8th and 5th place; with over half of the total prize-pool reserved for the top two finishers and the top three finishers will walk away with nearly 70% of the prize-pool.

At the end of Day 2 of the three-day event John Juanda is out in front of the field with a commanding chip-lead (nearly double the amount of his nearest competitor) but still has some tough competition to deal with like Philipp Gruissem, Steve O’Dwyer, David Benefield, Tobias Reinkemeier, Jani Sointula, and Mike Watson. Rounding out the final table are Macau high-stakes regulars Winifred Yu and Richard Yong. Here is a look at the final table chip counts for the tournament:

Juanda is looking for his third Super-High-Roller cash of 2012, having finished 3rd in the $100k buy-in Super-High-Roller tournament at the WPT Championship in May ($525k), and 5th in the recent $250k buy-in Macau High-Stakes Challenge Super-High-Roller tournament in August ($1.6 million).

The man in second place heading into the final table, Richard Yong, also has a fairly impressive High-Roller tournament resume, having cashed in two events including his 8th place showing in the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop tournament at the WSOP this summer, as well as a recent runner-up finish at the Aspers £100k Super-High-Roller tournament that was held in London just a week ago. Yong took home in the neighborhood of $1 million for both showings, giving him two career tournament cashes and over $2 million in career earnings – not a bad ratio!

With over a decade in the industry Steve can be categorized as an official poker junkie, having played poker in locales from Foxwoods to Las Vegas and even in Europe. Steve is a former professional poker player who transitioned to the more serene life of poker media in 2009 to spend more time with his family. Steve currently lives on the East Coast and is married with two kids.